[Addendum: The server hosting Bonny's website is down momentarily. I hope by the time you read this, the links from her site will be working fine]
I'm thrilled to announce the fabulous Bonny Becker's new picture book, A Visitor for Bear, which comes out this week! Bear is a curmudgeon who just wants to be left alone, but Mouse is insistent that Bear needs a friend. Bear been getting great reviews, including a starred review in School Library Journal! "The lively repetition and superb pacing make this an ideal choice for storytime," the SLJ review (scroll down to find the review) says, in part. Way to go, Bonny!
Bonny recently learned that A Visitor for Bear was going to be featured on the picture book wall at Barnes & Noble stores nationwide. You know how when you go into the children's area, there's always a wall display with 10-20 picture books face out on it? Where all the big names and bestsellers (or anticipated bestsellers) are? Where you hope your book will be one day? That's where her book will be! I can't wait to visit my B&N this weekend and see Bonny's book! I asked Bonny how all this came about.
According to Bonny, to get on the picture book wall display, first your publisher nominates your book, then B&N selects about 8 to 10 titles from all those nominated to be featured nationally. The individual stores pick the other books on the picture book wall. If selected, the publisher pays co-op money to help with the promotion of the book.
Co-op money has long been a feature of bookselling. Publishers help bookstores, including independents, pay for selected book signings, author appearances, etc. So it's always worth asking a bookstore if they have access to co-op money and to ask your publisher if they provide co-op money.
Now, how do I know all this, you're wondering? I'm lucky enough to be in a critique group with Bonny. She's the author of
Holbrook: A Lizard's Tale, An Ant's Day Off, Christmas Crocodile, and more. Check out her books
here. And besides being a talented and diverse writer, Bonny is a terrific teacher. She offers private critiquing and teaches through the
The Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA Program. She has a terrific grasp on structure, especially, and I have benefited greatly from her comments on my own work.
Anyway, our critique group got to watch Bonny tweak and polish this manuscript until it was absolutely irresistible, and we're all very proud and happy to see Bear finally come to bookstores and libraries. I hope you'll look for Bonny's book! I bet you'll love it as much as I do.
We were looking for some outdoor lights last week (ready to enter the 21st-century world of motion sensing), and we were at a Lowe's or a Home Depot or something. They had some to choose from, but nothing that knocked our socks off. But they were fine. So we picked out our favorite available one, bought three of them, and left, perfectly satisfied with our accomplishment.
On the way home, I had a brief image in my head of some lighting artist, creating beautiful and functional lights in her studio, selling them online or through specialty lighting stores, and bemoaning the huge chain DIY stores and their corporate greed (all the while wishing they would decide to distribute her fantastic lights). And I felt a pang of guilt for not at least going to a specialty lighting store.
OK, here's the thing. Deep breath.
I love Barnes & Noble.
There. I said it. This is not a popular thing to admit as a writer. I know that chain stores are a problem. They have way too much influence over the children's publishing industry now, as editors will actually make design and publishing decisions based on edicts from the B&N's or Borders' children's book buyer (two of the most powerful people in the children's publishing industry, from what I hear). The children's poetry section at my local store is appalling. The staff recommendations, endcap displays, and themed tables are paid ads from publishers. I could go on.
There are two reasons I end up at Barnes & Noble all the time. First, it's 5 minutes away. I'm a person whose life is built around convenience and efficiency. I get lost easily and hate heavy traffic. With job-juggling, two kids, a million errands to run, and writing to do, I go for the easy route every time. And for book-browsing, that's Barnes & Noble.
I don't actually buy much there, because I get most of my books from the library. I constantly have 30-40 books checked out, and another 10-20 waiting to come in on reserve or on interlibrary loan. I get my book recommendations from Horn Book, bloggers, teachers, and other writers. I wouldn't let Barnes & Noble actually shape my buying preferences. In fact, when I do buy a book from them, I have to have them order it. It's rarely anything they stock.
The second reason is that it's an escape. There is nowhere else close to my house where I can buy a caramel apple cider and sit down and read magazines. There is nowhere else close to my house with big, cushy chairs where I can take a stack of books and curl up and enjoy flipping through them. There is nowhere else I can get a hot tea and just enjoy walking through aisle after aisle of books, my favorite thing in the world.
Randy and I often stop there and play Scrabble (kept in the trunk of our car) after going out to dinner. It's a sane place where books feature prominently, and I just like being there.
And while I get 98% of my books from the library, I can understand why the chain stores are so hugely popular. Maybe they don't have the best selection (like Lowe's with my outdoor lights), but it's good enough, at least for people who don't know there are other, better options available. They're always close by (a blessing or a bane, depending on your viewpoint). And they are comfortable places to pass an hour or two, by yourself or with your kids in tow.
I love the idea of independent book stores, and I'm grateful they exist. And I know they need my business to keep existing. Although I don't buy many books (compared to the number I read, anyway), I've decided I need to make more of an effort to keep lists of the books I do need to buy and take those lists to an independent bookseller when I'm ready to plunk down cold cash.
But meanwhile, I'll still be at my Barnes & Noble at least once a week, soaking up the book-mosphere and sipping a yummy drink.
Shhh...don't tell!
